Neymar is Ready for Carnival

It’s that time of year again. The Champions League knockouts have come around, and the world’s best players are gearing up to compete in them. All but one of them, that is.

For Neymar, you see, February is significant for different reasons. IT’S CARNIVAL!!! And Neymar never misses it.

Neymar with his sister at the 2019 Carnival

He last missed it in 2014 – the year he arrived at Barcelona. Since then he has found a way to attend every single celebration. In both 2015 & 2016 he was suspended during Carnival, after accumulating the requisite number of bookings to be banned for a match. In 2017 he was actually free over Carnival. In 2018 & 2019 he was ruled out with metatarsal injuries (although to be fair to him each of these saw him miss about 3 months, so they were probably legit). Last season meanwhile saw the suspension routine used again, as he managed to get himself sent off for PSG in stoppage time of a win over Bordeaux.

And so we arrive in 2021. In the (second) year of Covid, surely Neymar need not attend Carnival’s likely reduced celebrations? WRONG. He limped off during his side’s match against Caen in midweek, and today it has been announced that he will be sidelined for approximately four weeks with a thigh injury. How unlucky.

Of course, there is another important event in Neymar’s life that occurs around this time of year: his sister’s birthday. It is on the 11th of March and is something else he almost never misses. Indeed, the one year (2017) he didn’t have to pull some variety of sickie to make Carnival, he was out with a “muscle injury” for the birthday instead.

Interestingly, four weeks out starting today carries him just nicely through to the 11th of March.

. Neymar rolling in apparent agony against Caen, as his yet another Carnival-shaped gap is created in his schedule

Convenient, eh?